Sony introduces a battery capable of powering a small data center

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The earthquake and tsunami in Japan back in March this year has understandably led to some new tech products being introduced to help in case it ever happens again. One such product from Sony aims to keep a small data center running long after the power has gone down.

The Sony ESSP-2000 is one giant battery and UPS in one. It can store up to 2.4kWh of power and supports a maximum load of 1000VA. Charging time is impressive considering the backup power on offer here, and it can achieve 95% charge in just two hours. Sony also decided to use olivine-type lithium-ion iron phosphate batteries in order to guarantee 10 years of optimal performance.

Such a unit could keep a rack of servers going for a short period of time at least. Or you could scale back and just keep a PC going for a long time, possibly even seeing you through an extended power outage.

This level of backup power doesn’t come cheap though, and certainly isn’t lightweight. The unit weighs 90kg and has dimensions of 49 x 61 x 75cm. Buying one will cost you a cool 2 million yen (US$25,700). Still, if getting an extra few hours of power would make all the difference then the investment may be worth it.

This clearly isn’t something for the home user unless access to a PC really is essential to you making it through an power outages, or a lack of mains power is something you have to deal with on a regular basis.